Over the years I’ve often been asked, “How does someone become an alert reader (AR)?”
The answer is, there are lots of ways, one of which is by going to school in Maplewood.
My basis for saying this is the cover story of the St. Louis Business Journal issue of October 9-15, 2026, titled “Lesson from Maplewood.”
According to the Business Journal, in 2000 Maplewood was characterized by “vacant storefronts and run down homes” and a public school district that was “only one point away from losing its state accreditation.”
Twenty-five years later The Maplewood-Richmond Heights School District had been transformed into one of the top-performing public school districts in Missouri. In 2025 MRH scored 98.5% on the state’s annual performance report (APR), the highest score of any public school district in Missouri.
The story goes on to say, “Schlafly Bottleworks opened a brewpub in Maplewood in 2003, a project that encouraged other businesses to move there.” In other words, since our opening Maplewood now has fewer “vacant storefronts” and a school system churning out new cohorts of ARs every year.
I would add that since Bottleworks opened we have paid close to a million dollars in property taxes to support MRH and have collaborated with the district in a variety of ways.
For all of the ARs out there… both newly minted (like those from MRH) and those who have been collecting Social Security for years (like yours truly)…I’m pleased to recommend an excellent book on the history of craft brewing in St. Louis.
Holiday Gift for Alert Readers
Full disclosure: Joel Bittle, the author of Gateway Beer: St. Louis Craft Brewing in the Shadow of Anheuser-Busch, interviewed me extensively in the process of researching and writing his book. That said, I learned a lot from this comprehensive history that I had not previously known despite having been in the business for 35 years.
Bittle concludes his history with the comment: “For 150 years beer made in St. Louis reached the farthest corners of the globe. Today, beer lovers come from all over the world for the city’s craft beer.”
He reminds readers that St. Louis is world-renowned not only for beer but also for our distinguished soccer heritage. In noting that Energizer Park, the home of St. Louis CITY SC, is right across the street from The Schlafly Tap Room, he writes:
How fitting that the burned-out shell of a neighborhood where Schlafly planted roots three decades ago has become the center of civic pride. If Tom Schlafly and Dan Kopman could have seen into the future on that Schlafly opening night in 1991, would they have believed that the bright lights and waving flags and marching fans united in chant were even possible, or that their decision to build a little brewpub in the shadow of Anheuser-Busch would be the first step toward a community of world-renowned craft brewers?
The answer of course is No. But it’s very gratifying to read that objective observers agree that two zip codes--63143 (Maplewood) and 63103 (Downtown West) --are better off at least in part because we chose to locate within them.
Tom Schlafly
Chairman